By Greg Vrigian

Chang­ing a deal­er­ship man­age­ment sys­tem (DMS) is not a deci­sion to be taken lightly; most deal­er­ship man­agers and employ­ees alike resist the idea.

But for Ser­vice Man­agers who have been con­sulted about the pos­si­bil­ity of change, rest assured there are options for all types of deal­er­ships, and the process of a DMS change is not nearly as cum­ber­some as it used to be.

Here are 5 things Ser­vice Man­agers should look for in a Deal­er­ship Man­age­ment System:

User– Friendly
Look for a DMS that’s intu­itive, requires a short learn­ing curve, and that doesn’t require a lot of key­strokes, codes or gyra­tions to accom­plish sim­ple tasks.

Excel­lent Sup­port
DMS ven­dors should be fight­ing to not only get your busi­ness, but to keep it on a daily busi­ness. Ask any poten­tial DMS ven­dors for ref­er­ences from other deal­er­ships. Ask to talk to other Ser­vice Man­agers who use their system.

Cus­tomiz­able Report­ing Tools
If you can dream it up, you should be able to run it with just a click of a but­ton. Look­ing at key per­for­mance indi­ca­tors on a daily basis helps keep your focus on prof­itabil­ity. A DMS report­ing tool should not only be robust, but also easy to use and cus­tomiz­able to what­ever you want to see.

Adapt­abil­ity for the Future
If you buy a DMS today, will that sys­tem evolve with your needs? Ask poten­tial ven­dors about their fees for upgrades, soft­ware enhance­ments or any other new fea­tures that may come out in the next few years.

For Ser­vice Man­agers explor­ing new deal­er­ship man­age­ment sys­tems, these fea­tures will greatly help max­i­mize prof­itabil­ity by increas­ing effi­ciency and reduc­ing the time asso­ci­ated with man­ual tasks that can, and should be, inte­grated with the DMS and other Ser­vice functions.